Lost & Found

June '07

Feature Article from Hemmings Classic Car

LARK-PORSCHE
At first glance, it looks like a well-worn Studebaker Lark two-door sedan, right? Nothing too odd about it to make it appear here. But there is the funny way in which the trunk lid sticks up...

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The Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana, recently shared these photos of one of the museum's latest acquisitions with us. Peggy Soderberg, the museum's assistant director, informed us that the Lark is in fact a Studebaker experimental car, fitted with a 1953 Porsche engine and drivetrain under that lifted trunk lid. "This study was commissioned by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, who held a large amount of Studebaker stock in the late 1950s, and managed Studebaker's operations during this time," Peggy told us. "Curtiss-Wright sought to study the viability of a rear-mounted engine in the Lark. The project was abandoned when Curtiss-Wright's management contract with Studebaker expired in November of 1959."
What's especially interesting is that Studebaker at the time was tied up in a deal to distribute Mercedes-Benz automobiles at Studebaker dealerships. Wonder how well a Porsche-engined Studebaker would have done in that partnership?
The Lark Experimental is currently on display. Visit the Studebaker museum's Web site (www.studebakermuseum.org) for details.
IDENTIFIED GRUNT?
We had a number of responses to the Unidentified Grunt picture in HCC #31 Lost & Found, sending us off in a variety of different directions to find an answer. They included Diamond T, Federal, Brown, Corbitt, Hendrickson, Indiana, White and Pierce-Arrow. The last three provide an interesting story -- Pierce-Arrow had built trucks as early as 1909 and continued to do so sporadically throughout the company's existence. Yet, toward the end of the Studebaker/Pierce-Arrow merger of 1928-'33, Studebaker attempted to purchase White, which had just previously bought Indiana. The purchase never went through, and White became a receiver of Studebaker, apparently acquiring the Pierce-Arrow truck subsidiary in the process.
So what does that tell us? Well, we see that the Indiana trucks from about 1936 have a cab design virtually identical to our mystery truck (and to 1935-'37 Ford pickups), but everything forward of the cab on the mystery truck looks foreign to those Indiana trucks. The mystery truck does appear to have a heavily sculptured and chromed grille, as well as headlamps integrated into its front fenders, just as a Pierce-Arrow would. However, according to most Pierce-Arrow references, White only manufactured Pierce-Arrow trucks in 1932-'33, and those Pierce trucks had conventional inboard headlamps.
On the other hand, Pierce-Arrow did own the patent for fender-mounted headlamps through 1938. So did White/Indiana attempt to resurrect Pierce-Arrow trucks in 1936? Or did that oil company build their own one-off truck based on a Ford or Indiana cab?
CRAZY CROSLEY
Okay, we know, every Crosley is crazy in some way. But this one's really out there. Robert Werner of Dayton, Ohio, wrote in with photos of the Crosley that his uncle, Charles Matthews, built in Dayton in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Robert said Charles painted the car in silver and handmade the body, possibly in aluminum.
While Robert said that Charles used Crosley parts, Charles also seemed to use parts from a number of other cars, most significantly those grille bars used as bumpers both front and rear. Judging from the two different license plates in the photos that Robert sent, it seems Charles had this car on the road for at least a few years.
"Today, I doubt if my uncle's car still exists, but if anyone knows about it, please let me know," Robert wrote. Let us know too.
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This article originally appeared in the June, 2007 issue of Hemmings Classic Car.